Space craft Atlantis is so lucky. Why? The crew will have access to new food technology: a magical crap bag capable of turning any liquid into sugary, electrolyte-rich fluids. And by any liquid, I mean any liquid. Move aside Bear Grylls, pee is no longer off the menu. What’s neat is that virtually no energy input is necessary. So what is this sorcery? Forward Osmosis. It’s a process of diffusion where water moves across a membrane from a solution of higher concentration into a solution of lower concentration. The membrane filters out all sorts of discards that includes salts, parasites and bacteria. Not exactly the sort of stuff Star Trek is made of but it’s very space efficient. Apparently you get 14 times as much fresh water from Forward Osmosis than you would from packaged water itself, which is kinda interesting.

So what does this mean?
Basically, you’d fill the bag with whatever contributions you’d like and Osmosis Jones forces that fluid into a solution filled with sugar and Gatorade powder. It takes about six hours. No shaking, no heating. Just science. Yum?

No, I feel ambivalent.

Pee transformed into sugary flavors is something that we all should feel outrageously happy about. But no love from me. This reminds me of all those times when I told my parents that the lemon Gatorade tasted funny, except no one believed me. Add some Soylent Brown and you have a meal that no one wishes they knew about.

If you’re really interested, the makers of this technology sell it for around $23.